I’m still 4.8% up at this stage. Fully expect it to fall a bit further but, as you say, none of this matters until a time when I want to sell my investments
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How are you calculating that % just out of curiosity. I take that’s your portfolio’s overall gain/loss ?
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Yeah, just the amount I’ve put in since September to how much it’s worth now
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If this worries you then just buy some premium bonds
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Nobody wants to see a drop, but its the name of the game. You need to be prepared for it. If you’re panicking over this then you need to stand back and ask yourself is trading for you?
You need to spend time in the market & not just time it. Remember, investing is for the long haul. Don’t expect miracles in the short term.
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Without advising, and depending on the stocks/etf’s purchased - ideally buy more.
Stocks will go up and down, every graph shows that but depending on the stock most go up in the long term, so the interim drops are opportunities to buy more at a discounted price.
Good luck with it all!
OP, I’ve had days where my portfolio is down £1500 in a single day. Chill.You want to buy low and sell high. Ignore Mr Market.
My advice is buy shares from companies you believe in with money you don’t need access to in the short/mid term. If you follow both those rules then the share prices dropping is only ever an opportunity to buy more for cheap.
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A drop in prices is not a bad idea, like many have said, it’s an opportunity to buy more for less and in the long term that investment “should” rise. You just need to stay in the market and not panic.
OP, I would advise you to stick to index funds, if you have not read books in investing and/or have a degree in finance. If you want to select stocks, you need to be VERY CAREFUL and VERY SELECTIVE. Both in terms of what you buy and what price you buy it at.
The motto goes, “be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful”. This determines the price you pay, essentially buy low and keep a large margin of safety with respect to the price paid.
The next is selecting good businesses. I would suggest you stick to large cap stocks, with recurring profitable streams of earnings (Apple, Costco, Visa as examples, I’m not saying buy these). If you haven’t heard of the company, it’s best to avoid it, for yourself at least. Watch also the P/E multiple, the higher it is, the more the market expects to earn and the riskier the stock. Low P/E stocks are harder to punish than high P/E stocks.
It will only rise if either…
a) the multiple on the stock expands
b) the EPS (earnings per share) on the stock rises
If a) or b) do not occur, it will not rise. I feel investors should be aware that stocks can go to zero and that is the nature of capitalism.
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